by Jenn Bennett
“Maybe you’re right. I guess I still have time.” Honestly, the thought of summoning a host of unknown Æthyric demons for a lineup made me bone-weary. “Well, the good news is that it will be easier to identify, right?”
He pushed the half-empty wheelbarrow forward a few paces, then continued shoveling. “A hell of a lot easier to identify, but no easier to find. Still the same number of books to go through.”
I hadn’t thought about that. “I guess you’re right,” I said glumly as he patted down the section he was working on with the back of the shovel. I snapped my mask back over my mouth and returned to my work in silence.
We finished with the first batch, then he hauled two more bags of hematite from his truck and we started the process all over again. After three batches, we were halfway done. The sun was beginning to set, but we were both sweaty and aching, so we allowed ourselves a short break. We washed off our hands with the garden hose as best we could, then I went inside to get water. When I came back out, he was sitting in the backyard on an old rusted lawn chair lighting a valrivia cigarette. Shirtless.
In the last of the day’s light, his skin was golden—in contrast to my own complexion, which was either pasty or milky white, depending on your point of view. He was also lean and muscular. Not in an I-work-out-at-the-gym way, but more natural and honest. My eyes followed a thin line of honey-colored hair that bisected his torso from a small patch in the center of his chest down past his belly button. My clothes suddenly felt too tight.
I stopped in my tracks and pretended like I’d forgotten something, then turned back and rounded the corner of the house until he was out of sight. A few cleansing breaths gave me some control over my feelings. No way was I going to let him catch me mooning over him like some teenage girl.
The second time I approached him, I kept my head down and tossed him a bottle of water, then dragged another lawn chair over. Not too close. How far had he said his ability extended? I made a quick calculation and placed my chair several feet away.
“Do I smell that bad?” he asked before offering me a valrivia cigarette.
Dammit.
I leaned forward out of my chair to reach for it, then quickly sat back down, only to realize that I had no lighter. So I held out my hands, coaxing him to toss his over. Instead, he flicked the lighter and puckishly beckoned for me to come to him.
Double damn. I begrudgingly got out of my chair.
“Yeah, you kinda stink,” I said after my cigarette was lit.
“So do you,” he answered with a grin. Before I could make it back to my seat, he scooted down, stuck his leg out between mine, and hooked his foot around the leg of my chair, dragging it closer. Well within range of his ability. I plopped down in defeat.
“When’s your servitor supposed to return?” he asked.
“I allowed it one day, so by tomorrow night, give or take. That kind of magick sometimes has problems adhering to strict schedules, so it could be a couple days.”
He nodded, then we smoked in silence for a long moment. I tried not to look at him, but I couldn’t help it. Fine lines creased the outer corners of his eyes. As he ran a hand through his hair, stray strands of ash blond and platinum floated in the wind at the crown while deeper shades of caramel brown flittered over the tops his shoulders. My eyes stubbornly wandered down his bare skin. He had a thick, pale scar, several inches long, that ran diagonally across his lower left ribs.
“What did that?” I asked.
He looked down, tucking his chin against his chest, then slumped back in his chair, his legs lazily falling open. “My ex-wife, Yvonne.”
“Uh … wow. I thought she was a model, not a grizzly bear.”
His knee rocked sideways once, almost touching mine. He studied me through slitted eyes. A smile threatened to lift up one side of his mouth as he took a long drag off his cigarette. “You’ve been studying up on me, I see.”
“One of my waitresses lives in La Sirena. She thought I should be impressed that you were once married to a super-model.”
“Were you?”
“I’d never heard of her, so not really.” I did, however, look up images of her online. She was lovely, all right. Medium brown complexion, full lips. Her face was long and regal—a feature she’d passed along to Jupe—and the lower half of her was just as stunning. Though, petty or not, I personally thought her hips were a little skinny. She was also flat-chested.
“From what I could tell, she seems quite attractive.” And in some of the photos, Yvonne bore the same green-gold halo that Lon had. I started to ask about this, but he spoke before I could.
“She is. She’s also high-strung and gets off on danger. If she’s not getting coked up and gambling, she’s participating in orgies or wrecking her car.”
My mouth twisted as I remembered the image of my own car wrapped around a tree.
“Your wreck was different,” he acknowledged with a smile. He flicked ashes and ticked off a short list of complaints. “Yvonne hated La Sirena—hated the beaches up here. Too full of sea lions and driftwood instead of sexy sunbathers. Hated my job. Hated being a mother; said it slowed her down, and she had no patience for Jupe’s energy and questions. In her defense, though, he was kind of a handful when he was a toddler.”
“I can only imagine.” I chuckled, pushing hair out of my face. “What does Jupe think about her?”
“When he was younger, he thought she was glamorous. She’d bring him expensive presents when she visited. A couple of years ago he started to see her for what she was. Now he just feels sorry for her.”
That made me a little sad, but I didn’t say anything.
“He’s close to Yvonne’s sister, though—Adella—and his grandmother. The two of them live in Oregon. Adella’s a university professor. She and her mom drive down here every few months to visit us, or we go up there. They’ve been real supportive. Love Jupe to pieces.”
“At least he has that,” I said. “Not everyone does.” I gave him a closed-lipped smile and his face softened. “My mom’s parents died when I was about Jupe’s age. I never knew my dad’s parents.”
“My parents are both dead,” he said. “I inherited my money and property from them.”
“Siblings?”
“Only child.”
“Me too, but I guess you know that from watching the news.” I squinted at his scar. “So how did she do that?”
He traced his finger along it and exhaled. “She cut me with a kitchen knife on my way into the divorce courtroom.”
“Holy shit.” I was shocked and slightly horrified.
“In the end, it was worth it. My request for full custody of Jupe was granted without question. The judge said she should be locked up in a mental institution, but I didn’t have her arrested.”
“Why not?”
“Because … my dabbling with magick is the reason she’s the way she is,” he said without emotion, stubbing his cigarette into the grass. He looked away, as if that were the end of the conversation.
“What? Don’t think you can just drop a bomb like that and not explain it.”
He shrugged, but didn’t respond. Clearly he thought he’d said too much and was clamming up again.
“I’ve shared secrets with you,” I reminded him, “so it’s only polite that you return the favor.”
The barest hint of a smile, but he wasn’t budging.
“Fine,” I said, brushing my hand on my jeans. “If you aren’t ready to tell me now, I can wait.”
He looked at me for a moment, then nodded. I interpreted that to mean that he’d tell me eventually. “Ready to get back to work?” he asked. “We need to get this finished. You’ve still got to charge the damn thing with Heka once we’re done.”
I sighed and pushed myself out of my chair with a groan, carefully scanning Lon’s face for clues to his feelings. Funny that after all my years living in hiding, I was struck by the realization that someone else’s secrets might be just as interesting as mine.
&
nbsp; 13
A day had passed since Lon and I erected the ward around my house, and my servitor still hadn’t returned. I was beginning to worry, and contemplated pulling it back prematurely.
Apart from my house or Lon’s, or my now heavily warded rental car, one of the safest places I could be was probably the bar. Being around people coming and going would help to disguise my energy from any lurking spies. So, regrettably, I resumed my shifts at Tambuku until Lon had had a chance to research our new glass talon lead. Most of our regulars acted glad to see me back behind the bar. I only had to break up one fight yesterday, and it didn’t involve binding anyone, so not too bad.
Tambuku was busy today, and the work kept my mind off matters. During a short break early on in my shift, I tried to email Caliph Superior in Florida. I wanted to tell him about the glass talon and the visit to the Tamlins, but I didn’t think it was a good idea to phone him, just in case his calls were being monitored. However, my email bounced back, saying that his in-box was full.
While I debated whether to risk a call to the caliph, my phone rang. Lon’s number.
“Hey there,” I answered. I’d been getting antsy waiting to hear from him today, so it was a relief that he’d called.
But it wasn’t Lon’s voice that answered in reply; it was Jupe’s.
“Heya, Cady, whatcha doing?”
“Umm, working. What are you doing calling me on your dad’s phone?”
“You’re not mad, are you?”
“No—”
“Whew! You scared me there for a second. I didn’t know your number and he checks all the calls I make on my cell phone, I mean, uh, not that it matters … anyway, are you at your bar? I looked it up online. How come you don’t have a website?”
“We do have one, it just isn’t very big.”
“Pfft. A tiny photo with your address and phone number—that’s not a website, that’s a web page. You should let me build you a better one.”
A thirteen-year-old kid can build a website these days? Holy shit. “Umm … we’ll see.”
“Hey, you wanna go on a date?”
“Huh? With who?”
“With me.”
“Uh, Jupe, I’m flattered, but I’m a little old for you.”
He laughed. “My dad said the same thing—he said you’re too old for me and too young for him and told me not to get any ideas.”
“Well, he’s probably right.” Though it stung to know that Lon thought I was too young.
“Look,” he said, lowering his voice. “It’s not really a date. There’s this movie playing at the drive-in that I wanna see real bad. It’s only playing for two more nights. My friend Jack was supposed to come with me tonight, but his parents won’t take us. They say he’s not allowed to stay out after ten on a school night.”
“When I was your age, I couldn’t either.”
“Well, that’s dumb. I can stay up till midnight.”
“Impressive. Why can’t your dad take you?”
“He says he’s too busy.”
Amanda walked up to the bar and gave me a three-drink order for a booth.
“Who are you talking to?” Jupe asked.
“I’m working, remember. I’m talking to a waitress.”
“Oh, cool,” he said, unfazed. “Anyway, so I was thinking, you could come pick me up and we could go see the movie together in your rental. I asked my dad what kind of car you rented and—”
“I can’t tonight, Jupe. Working, remember?” God, the kid was hardheaded.
“What about tomorrow? Please. I’m begging! It’s the last night. I’ll die if I can’t see it.”
“Jeez, you’ll die? What movie is it?” I finished mixing one drink and started a tray for Amanda.
“Creature from the Black Lagoon.”
“The one from the sixties?”
He snorted derisively. “The sixties? Man, I thought you knew about classic movies—1954. It never gets screened anywhere around here. Please, Cady. Please, please, please—”
“I have to work a half-shift tomorrow, so I won’t get off work until eight-thirty.”
“It starts at nine-thirty. How long would it take you to get here?”
“Uh, thirty minutes. Maybe less now that I know the shortcut up your cliff.”
“COOL! We have time!”
“I don’t know, Jupe …”
“Hey, you kinda owe me. My dad’s been locked up in his stupid library for the last two days doing research for you and ignoring me. Besides, he says I’m driving him nuts anyway. If we leave him alone, he’ll do your research faster.”
I laughed. “Hell’s bells, where did you learn to negotiate?”
“Will you do it? Huh?”
“All right,” I said, caving in. “I’ll pick you up at nine. Does your dad know?”
“No, but he won’t care. He likes you. Wait, hold—”
I finished mixing the drinks just in time for Amanda to return with more orders; as I lined up four new tiki mugs, muffled conversation on the other end of the line turned into muffled yelling.
“Arcadia,” Lon’s voice said from my phone.
“Who is this?” I teased.
“You can’t take my son on a date.”
“I didn’t ask him. He asked me.”
“He stole my cell and called without permission.”
“Sounds like a personal problem to me.” A low growling noise came out of the phone. “It’s just for a couple of hours. I’m not going to let him make moves on me, sheesh.”
“You better not. He’s still a virgin and I’d like to keep it that way.”
My jaw dropped. “Are you joking? I can never tell if you’re serious.”
“Mhmph.”
Okay, he was joking; the sad thing was that I was starting to be able to read his grunts better than his words.
“I’ll try to control myself,” I said. “Come on, it’s just babysitting. Don’t you trust me with your kid?”
“Says you, the person attacked by a Pareba demon a few days ago.”
Ugh. He had a point. What if something happened while Jupe was with me? Lon would never forgive me. I sure as hell wouldn’t if it were my kid. “You’re right, maybe I shouldn’t—”
“I know you’ve got your charm and have warded the rental car, I’m sure it’s fine. To be honest, it’s not you I don’t trust, it’s him. He once sneaked off from the drive-in.”
“Oh, really? Well, I’ve never had a date bail on me before.”
“I bet.”
“You bet what?” What the hell was that supposed to mean? I accidently overpoured the Mai Tai I was making and started cussing under my breath as I grabbed a bar towel.
“Look, he’s kind of a pain in the ass, so if you’re just telling him yes because he put you on the spot, don’t worry about it. I’m sure you’ve got bigger boys waiting in line for dates on your nights off.”
I held the phone away from my ear and looked at it momentarily before speaking. Oh, too young for him, was I? “Lon Butler, are you trying to find out if I’m dating someone?”
Amanda leaned over the bar to grab napkins and gawked at me. “You’re talking to Lon Butler on the phone?” she whispered excitedly. I made a face at her and put my finger up to my mouth to get her to shut up.
“No, I was just saying—” Lon began. Low grunt, long sigh. “Don’t feel obligated to entertain Jupe.”
Wide-eyed, Amanda giddily puckered up her mouth before I pushed her away from the bar. Great. Now I was going to have to concoct some lie about why I was talking to him.
“Well, it’s not a big deal,” I told Lon. “I like Jupe and I’m happy to get him out of the house and give you some quiet time. Besides, if I had ‘bigger boys’ lined up right now … well, more interesting ones than the two losers who’ve asked me out tonight already—”
One of said losers, Tambuku’s favorite Earthbound healer, Bob, looked up from his drink with a wounded look. Oh, brother … “Sorry, Bob. You know I didn’t
mean that,” I whispered before turning away to finish with Lon.
“Anyway, I probably wouldn’t be settling for movie-night with a teenage boy if I did.”
He paused, then replied, “It’s your funeral.”
“All right, well, I’ll pick him up at nine tomorrow. I take it you haven’t found anything today, research-wise?”
“No.”
I sighed. “Well, I gotta get back to work.”
“See you tomorrow,” he replied. “I’ll make sure he’s ready on time.”
“Sounds good, have a go—” But the line went dead before I could finish. “So rude,” I mumbled to myself. Maybe dating the younger Butler was preferable after all. He didn’t grunt.
14
The next day, I stopped by Father Carrow’s on my way to work. He was in his front yard watering plants. He glanced up to watch me step out of the car and smiled as I approached.
“Good afternoon, Father.”
“Cadybell, what a nice surprise. On your way to work?” He rested the garden hose trigger on the porch steps and took a red bandana out his back pocket to wipe his brow. He was wearing a large floppy straw hat and dark blue pants.
“Yep. Watering your special shrub? What’s it called? Yesterday …”
“Yesterday, today, and tomorrow. See, it still has all three flower colors on the side. The dark purple are the youngest, lilac middle-aged, and white are the oldest.”
I leaned forward to breathe it in. The shrub stood the same height as me. “It smells so good. I can’t believe it’s still blooming.”
“Lots of fertilizer and love, my dear. How’s it going with Lon?” If I didn’t know better, I would’ve said there was a little mischievous sparkle in his eye when he asked. I ignored it and answered casually, “Not bad. I was going to give you the latest update on the demon.”
“Has he found it already? I told you he was good.”
“He’s been working tirelessly, but no luck yet.”
Father Carrow picked up his hose and continued spraying around the base of the flower bed. “Oh, I’m sorry. What’s the update?”